 Elections designed to give the party- state greater legitimacy  Party controls elections to prevent dissent  Direct, secret-ballot elections at local level › Found most common at the village level (could be a façade) › Indirect elections at other levels

 CCP allows the existence of eight "democratic" parties. › China Democratic League-intellectuals › Chinese Party for the Public Interest-overseas experts  Membership is small and has very little power  Important advisory role to the party leaders and generate support for CCP policies › Meet at CPPCC during National People’s Congress (and attend NPC as nonvoting deputies)

CCP CHINESE GOVERNMENT PLA PARALLEL HIERARCHY  Three parallel hierarchies  Principle of dual role  China's policy making is governed more directly by factions and personal relationships (guanxi)

 Organized hierarchically by levels  The party has a separate constitution from the government's constitution of 1982, and its central bodies are: › National Party Congress › Central Committee › Politburo/Standing Committee

 Three branches - a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary.  People's National Congress  The National People's Congress choose the President and Vice President of China, but there is only one party-sponsored candidate for each position Executive/Bureaucracy  The President and Vice President  The Premier  Bureaucracy

 Chinese for patron-client relationships › Think nomenclatura in the CCP  Helps to build contacts and power › Can determine Politburo membership among other things

 President and Premier (Prime Minister) › President is head of state with little constitutional power, but is sometimes the General Secretary of CCP › Prime Minister is head of State Council, or ministers, and is in charge of “departments” of government

 They are elected for 5-year terms by National Peoples Congress, nominated by CCP’s National Party Congress  They also serve on Central Military Commission, which oversees the PLA  The CCP’s leader is the general secretary and he is in charge of bureaucracy, or Secretariat

 Think of Russian Matrioshka dolls  Top legislative body is National Peoples Congress › 3,000 members chosen by provincial peoples congresses across the country › They meet in Beijing once a year for a couple of weeks to “legislate” for 1 billion+ people  Pass laws; amend Constitution,  On paper very powerful, but checked by Party

 The National Peoples Congress chooses a Central Committee of 200 that meets every 2 months to conduct business  Inside this is the Central Committee’s Standing Committee which functions every day

 Parallel structure  The National Party Congress is main representative body of CCP, not people › Has 2,000 delegates › Select people chosen for Central Committee › It chooses a Politburo of 12 people to run party’s day to day business › Many of these people work in Secretariat so Politburo chooses a Standing Committee of 6 headed by General Secretary (Thus merging executive to legislative)

 Standing Committee of Politburo includes president and prime minister, plus closest associates, and the party legislative “branch” and party executive is joined with government executive

 State Council › Government Ministers and Premier carry out the decisions made by National Peoples Congress (or Politburo) › Chinese bureaucrats are paralled by party members assigned to their ministries  Leadership small groups are informal groups that link other ministers to coordinate policymaking and implementation › In spite of centralization, provincial and local ministries have had to adapt national policies to local needs

 China has a 4-tiered " people's cour t" system › Handle criminal cases and government working on civil law codes  “People's Procuratorate " › Investigates suspected illegal activity  Criminal justice is swift and harsh (capital punishment is a bullet in the back of the head)  Human Rights organizations criticize China › Not a rule of law system, rather a rule by law system

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.“ - Mao  The People's Liberation Army encompasses all of the country's ground, air, and naval armed services.  Important influence on politics and policy. The second half of Mao's famous quote above is less often quoted: "Our principle is that the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the party." This propaganda poster represents life in the "Red Army" - the military under Mao before the People's Republic of China was formed in 1949.

 During the 1970s and 80s the government didn’t have money to modernize Army so fended for itself › It ran hotels, construction companies, factories that produced pirate copies of everything, satellite dishes  By 1990s government began controlling the Army and its activities

 Ministry of State Security › Combats espionage and gathers intelligence  People’s Armed Police › Guards public buildings and quell unrest  Ministry of Public Security › Maintenance of law and order, investigations, surveillance › Maintain labor reform camps › No habeas corpus rights

 Economic reforms › Corruption › Iron rice bowl broken › High unemployment › Inequality of classes › Floating population › Environmental implications  Demand for political power and civil liberties?  Will contact through trade mean that China will become more like their trading partners?

 Hong Kong  Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

 China trades with Taiwan, but the PRC views Taiwan as part of China and Taiwan does not › But they want to benefit from its trade

Democratic reforms can be seen in these ways: › Some input from the National People's Congress is accepted by the Politburo › More emphasis is placed on laws and legal procedures › Village elections are now semi-competitive, with choices of candidates and some freedom from the party's control

 Hu was Chosen as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China on November 15, 2002  Became President of the People's Republic of China on March 15, 2003, following his election by the National People's Congress, thus replacing his predecessor Jing Zemin.  He is the first party chief to have joined the Communist Party after the Revolution over 50 years ago  Claims to have a photographic memory and tends to have moderate views.